ITV Playhouse

Casting the Runes (11x9)

: 24, 1979

This adaptation of the M.R. James classic ghost story dates from 1979 and was made as a contemporary drama rather than a period one like the earlier BBC M.R. James adaptations. Made by Yorkshire Television in 1978, they used a TV station as the setting for their drama, allowing Yorkshire Television to use their own studios as the location, along with a number of other locations around a very wintry Leeds. Presumably the weather conditions were just a fluke, but the snowy inner ring road motorway in central Leeds as the setting for scenes where Prudence realises the grim reality of the situation she's in work wonderfully well and give it a suitably gothic feel. The central character of Prudence Dunning (Jan Francis) is based on Edward Dunning in the original story. Many of the scenes are close to those in the book with a more modern setting (TV station instead of academic society, airport instead of railway station). Some of the dialogue from the book is even used almost verbatim.